Karim Benzema filed a complaint this Tuesday for defamation against the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who accused him of having “notorious” links with the Islamic organization Muslim Brotherhood, according to the complaint, consulted by AFP.
The Ballon d’Or “Karim Benzema has notorious links, we all know, with the Muslim Brotherhood,” the minister declared on October 16 on the television network CNews.
Darmanin thus reacted to a publication on
Two days after the minister’s accusation, Benzema’s lawyer categorically denied the link.
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“That is false! “Karim Benzema has never had the slightest relationship with this organization,” lawyer Hugues Vigier reacted in a statement.
“Praying on October 15 for civilian populations under bombs that spare neither women nor children obviously constitutes neither ‘propaganda for Hamas’, nor ‘complicity with terrorism, nor acts of collaboration,'” the lawyer said. of the striker, who then considered filing a complaint against the politician for defamation or public insult.
In the lawyer’s opinion, we were witnessing “once again an intolerable instrumentation of Karim Benzema and the symbolic figure usually attributed to him.”
The complaint, filed by Vigier, indicates that these statements “undermine” his honor and reputation. She was presented before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only jurisdiction authorized to prosecute and try members of the government for infractions committed in the exercise of their functions.
«Instrumentalized in political games»
In his complaint, Benzema, who now plays for the Saudi club Al-Ittihad, reaffirms that “he has never had the slightest link with the Muslim Brotherhood organization.”
“I see to what extent I am, due to my notoriety, instrumentalized in political games, even more scandalous if we take into account the dramatic events that have occurred since October 7, which deserve nothing more than these statements,” he said.
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In October, Darmanin’s team, contacted by AFP, stated: “For several years, we have observed a slow drift in Karim Benzema’s positions towards a harsh, rigorous Islam.”
The player’s refusal to sing the Marseillaise during his matches with the French national team is mentioned, his “proselytizing on social networks about Muslim worship, such as fasting, prayer, the pilgrimage to Mecca” or his “support for the publication by the Russian MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, a real call to hate after the publication of a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in the French press.
Born in Lyon, Karim Benzema, 36 years old, is considered one of the best forwards of his generation, winner of five Champions Leagues with Real Madrid.
The entry Benzema denounces the French Minister of the Interior for stating that he had Islamist links was first published in EL NACIONAL.